Cuttack, Feb 10: Rohit Sharma shone with a sensational century as India eased past England by 4 wickets in the second ODI and sealed the three-match series on Sunday. Ravindra Jadeja scalped 3 for 35 but England still posted 304 all-out after opting to bat first.What followed was a terrific Rohit show as in the second innings, the India captain returned to form in style. Rohit scored 119 off 90 balls with the help of 12 fours and 7 sixes. He smashed his 32nd ODI century and surpassed Rahul Dravid in the list of India batters with most international tons.
Rohit, who sits at the third spot now, follows Virat Kohli (81) and Sachin Tendulkar (100). During the knock, Rohit also surpassed Chris Gayle in the list of batters with most sixes in ODI cricket.
The Indian captain sits at the second position with the tally of 332. Chris Gayle follows him with 331. Shahid Afridi tops the list with 351 ODI sixes.
Rohit Sharma, India captain and Player of the Match said, It was good, really enjoyed being out there, scoring some runs for the team. Important game, series on the line. I broke it into pieces how I wanted to bat. It’s a format that is longer than T20 cricket and a lot shorter than Tests. Still, you need to assess and bat according to the situation. I wanted to stay focused and bat as deep as possible. Looking at the pitch when you play on black soil, the pitch tends to skid on a bit so it’s important that you show the full face of the bat. Then they were trying to bowl into the body and not give room so I prepared my plan as well. I accessed the gaps and obviously, I got good support from Gill and then Shreyas. We enjoy batting with each other, Gill is a very very classy player. I have seen him from close quarters and he doesn’t get overawed by the situation. The numbers are there as well if I’m not wrong.
Jos Buttler, England captain: thought we did a lot of things well, we got into a nice position with the bat. We needed someone to push on and get us to 350. Credit to Rohit, he batted superbly, he has been batting like this since a few years in ODI cricket. Wanted to get runs on the board, it skidded on a bit and the opposition also played well. We played the powerplay brilliant, we needed someone to kick on and a score around 330-350 would have been defendable. Just keep taking steps in the right direction, the results are not there but we need to keep going and be positive.
